At Creators’ Talk, we speak to real-life creators about their unique experiences in creating and monetizing their content. We also talk about their challenges and how they are overcoming them.
We hope that these stories will inspire you to build your niche and monetise your content over time.
Today, we’re featuring WhizQueen a Toronto-based creator focused on finance, lifestyle and Vlogs. Here’s hear her story;
Hi…Can we meet you WhizQueen?
Hello, my name is Bisola, but I’m popularly known as “WhizQueen”. I’m a Youtuber, entrepreneur, finance expert and honestly a jack of all trades.
I love to share my knowledge and helpful tips on how people can improve their savings, grow their investments and be financially independent. The goal is to acquire wealth and possibly retire early.
Haha… we’re with you on this one. Were you always so creative growing up?
Nah. I’ve always been the “go to school and get a white-collar job person”. As I grew older, I began to identify some of my strengths and skills. I know a lot of things that a lot of people don’t know about. So I thought it’ll be nice to share some of these things.
I first started by touring my neighbourhood – going to places in Ikeja like those parks and all. Then I was sharing some other lifestyle content.
When I moved to Canada, I started to create content around immigration. I’m now transitioning into finance cause that’s my core strength. My bachelor’s is in Finance so I have a lot of experience and exposure to the finance world. Now I focus on finance and lifestyle content.
That’s so cool. At what point did you think about taking your content a lot more seriously?
Oh, it was after Uni. In fact like a year or two after. I watch a lot of YouTubers, and I was like I could do this. You know, create content like this on a different topic or a different niche. That was when I picked interest. It wasn’t like as a child or in high school. It was way after that.
I’ve always admired content creation as a kid, but I never thought it was something that I could do. It was, later on, I realized I like this, and I can do it.
When did you realize that you could make money from content?
This was when I got my first brand deal, it was like $100. And I was like wow, so people can reach out to me for paid content.
Before then, I was already monetizing my Youtube – because Youtube has Adsense revenue. So I was already making a few dollars from that. But when the first brand reached out that they love my content, I was like okay, so I’m at the point where I can start to work as a brand influencer.
Are you open to sharing what the brand deal was?
I can’t share what the exact brand deal was, but I know it was $100 for a Youtube video in 2019. I can never forget how much it was.
Now I’m not ashamed to say that content creation isn’t just for fun anymore. It’s now something I do as a job and just like any other job, you’ll want to get value from it.
Value could be in terms of satisfaction like oh, I’m making an impact on other people. It could be that I’m monetising and making money from it. It could also be networking and meeting new people.
So now I don’t just see content creation as a hobby, it’s a job for me because it does take a lot of time.
We can imagine. Editing alone is a lot of work
I literally just finished editing one and I decided to export it while I’m on this call. You’d film, edit, create a thumbnail, scale, and promote on other socials, it’s so much work.
When people watch this they’d say oh it’s just a 10-minute video but in reality, it’s 12 hours of work. I had no editing skills for the longest time. I mean I had to go and learn it.
How is it juggling content creation with a full-time job?
I promise you, it’s very exhausting. Your weekends, late nights and early mornings are gone. It requires a lot of time, investments, and financial commitment as well.
Sometimes, you’d have to commit to hiring an editor, paying for software and all those things. Even when I hadn’t started monetizing my channel, I had to invest in buying a camera, and similar things. Because there were no Youtube earnings, it had to come from my main income.
So yeah it’s very hard, but I’m staying committed to this course.
Do you think you could do it full-time?
Sometimes I ask myself this but I feel like it could become exhausting for me. Other times, I think well, it wouldn’t just be doing Youtube full-time, there’d be a lot of other side gigs that can bring me income.
This is because I don’t want to risk making Youtube my full income. Like what if Adsense stops monetizing or something happens to the platform?
That’s an angle. Was there a breakout gig for you or it was more of a progressive growth?
It’s always been like little endorsements and brand deals that have grown over time. I think the biggest breakthrough my channel has had, is when my recent video went viral. It has almost 800,000 views and I made that video casually with a friend.
We just wanted to talk about what we don’t like about Canada and why people are leaving. The video took us barely 30 minutes to film and it went viral in a few days.
It was so casual and to think that a lot of people around the world, picked interest in it. I saw comments from around the world. Some people agreed, and some people were bashing us, but I mean more people agreed with us than those who disagreed. So it means it made sense.
That video made me enough income and I was like wow, so this is how it is when you go viral. And now it just made me decide that I could actually take content creation very seriously and make money from it.
Before it was like a side gig but now, I see it as my second job.
Love to see it. So what would you say is the biggest challenge of being a creator aside from having to juggle it with your main job?
Before it used to be editing, but at this point, I’m like just spend money and hire someone who will edit it.
I think staying committed and consistent is challenging. There are some days, I’ll be like I’m so tired, I can’t do this. But to be successful as a creator, you just have to stick to it.
A lot of creators struggle with getting inspiration – what would you say is your biggest inspiration when creating content?
I get inspired when there’s something I know that I can share. Like now, a recession is coming. People don’t know what they can do to prepare or to get themselves ready. So I’m like hmm, that makes sense, I could create content around this.
Then recently, I found out about oligopolies in Canada where companies are owned by the same people. Like hmm, that’s so weird, I don’t think people know that. So I’m thinking about creating content around that topic or if it’s even necessary for my niche.
Other than that, I’m also inspired that a lot of people find my content very valuable. I get a lot of DMS, emails and sometimes when I meet people in person, they tell me how my content has helped them relocate easily.
So getting that feedback, really inspires me, because if I want to stop, I know that thousands of people are waiting for me to post something. You know that they are learning from it, and it’s helping their lives, so I can’t back down.
These things inspire me – that I’m making an impact and that different things around my lifestyle could educate people.
Nice… So what’s a finance tip that you stick to as a creator that has helped you stay on course?
It’s very simple – live within your means. Because why are you spending more than your income? I think financial problems are inevitable if you’re always spending more than you earn. It makes no sense.
So what about if you’re spending more as an investment?
That’s different. Investing in yourself is different. If you’re earning 100k and you’re putting all that 100k into learning a course that could earn you potential income, that’s okay. Because you’re investing in a skill that’ll earn you a good return.
If it looks difficult, you’re still going to work hard to get that return. Because you know that you’ve sacrificed something.
So I always encourage people to invest in themselves and learn new skills. Do whatever it takes for you to improve your chances of earning a higher income.
But if you’re spending a night out with your friends and you pay for everyone’s drinks on a N100k salary- you’ve spent above your means.
If you’re saying oh I’ll get paid at the end of this month, let me maximize my credit card, and then I’ll pay it back with my next paycheck, that’s going to be a problem. Because if you think about it, it’s a loan.
So if you’re not spending on something that’ll yield you returns, I see absolutely no reason why you should live above your means.
Last Question. Do you have any advice for creators looking to venture into finance content?
I have a lot but here are the key tips;
Start– don’t let anything discourage you. Start with your phone, film a video, and post it across your social media channels Post your first video and stop procrastinating.
Be prepared- set your expectations. Finance is not something that everyone is concerned with like entertainment. You’re educating. So your views for educational content will be low. Just expect that. But it’s worth it.
When you see that you’re making an impact in people’s lives, that’s enough to keep going. Over time, you’ll see the results
Finally, It’s worth it so get to work.
Being a creator is already enough work, let’s do the heavy lifting. Get tips and sell digital products with Creathor today.
